Is Cuba abusing its overseas workers? A Tampa dissident takes Cuba to
court

Paul
Guzzo, Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — Raul Risco
was once loyal to Cuba’s socialist cause.

He says he served in
the Cuban military as a lieutenant colonel and later worked for the
government’s Ministry of the Interior.

Then 18 years ago,
disillusioned with socialism and a one-party political system, Risco
became a vocal dissident in the city of Camaguey. This role, he says,
landed him in a Cuban prison 300 times, for a total of five years.

For the safety of his
wife and 4-year-old son, Risco sought asylum and moved with his family
to Tampa 11 months ago. But his work as a dissident leader has not
stopped.

Risco, 62, has filed
a lawsuit in Havana demanding changes to the Cuban government’s
practice of sending professionals to work overseas as part of a system
he says is akin to human trafficking.

His ultimate goal is
to bring the case before the United Nations and its International
Court of Justice.

"It is important for
people to hear what is going on," said Risco, who was a licensed
attorney in his former nation but now works for a cleaning service.

"I want more eyes on
Cuba."

The Cuban government
sends about 65,000 of its citizens to work in more than 60 countries.
That’s according to Cuba Archive director Maria Werlau, whose
Washington, D.C., nonprofit aims to shed light on human rights issues
in Cuba. Those professionals include doctors, teachers, athletic
trainers, construction workers and musicians.

But Risco said those
workers are poorly paid and poorly treated by their government. That’s
despite the valuable services they offer to nations that need doctors
and nurses to serve impoverished areas.

Cuba charges those
client nations thousands of dollars a month per employee, who
typically spend two to three years overseas, Werlau said.

But under Cuba’s
socialist system, she said, these professionals receive at most 20 to
25 percent of what clients are paying for their services. The rest,
Werlau said, goes to the Cuban government.

These overseas
professionals drive Cuba’s economy, Werlau said, adding that the Cuban
government says they bring in more than $10 billion a year.

But while the workers
willingly enter into the contracts, Werlau said, if they tire of the
arrangement, or quit and go into exile, they can face severe sanctions
from the Cuban government. They could be banned from returning to Cuba
for up to eight years, and their families may not be allowed to join
them overseas for at least five years.

And what these
workers earn is placed in Cuban bank accounts that are accessible only
when the professionals return home, Risco said. If they do not return
to Cuba, he said, the government keeps their earnings.

"This is a form of
punishment to prevent professionals from migrating," Risco said. "It
is forced labor."

His client in his
international lawsuit is Manoreys Rojas, a Cuban traumatology doctor
stationed in Ecuador for 30 months. Risco said Rojas would have earned
$4,000 for his time there.

But when Rojas’ stint
in Ecuador was up, he fled to Miami in 2016 and later planned to have
his wife and 11-year-old daughter join him.

Rojas now works as an
Uber driver in Miami. His family is still in Cuba.

In February 2018,
according to the lawsuit, Rojas’ daughter attempted suicide. She told
her psychologist that it was because she missed her father.

Rojas flew to Cuba to
be by her side but said he was detained at the airport and sent back
to Miami.

His family, according
to the lawsuit’s translation, has been negatively "affected by the
unjust behavior" of Cuba’s immigration authorities.

It also says Rojas’
time in Ecuador fulfilled his contract, so the Cuban government should
not have banned him.

The lawsuit also says
the government’s practice is unconstitutional.

Risco demands that
the Cuban government allow Rojas to return to the island nation and
that his family be allowed to leave if they so wish. Risco said his
lawsuit is akin to a class-action lawsuit in the United States,
representing every Cuban "suffering because of this cruel" policy.

In June, Risco filed
the lawsuit in the Provincial Court of Havana through an attorney
friend who lives in Cuba.

Risco expects the
Cuban courts to reject his lawsuit. Then, he said, he will take it to
the Cuban Supreme Court, where it will likely suffer the same fate.

He explained that he
needs "to go through the system like this" before bringing the issue
to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council or the International Court
of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Rafael Pizano, a
spokesman for Tampa’s dissident community, said the unfair treatment
of Cuba’s overseas professionals is the result of the government
banning unions it does not approve of.